Their work and their effectiveness will, of course, depend on the
school’s or the district’s administrative leadership. As described in Chap-
ter 20 of this book, school leaders view themselves as role models and
mediators of the staff’s and students’ intellectual capacities. They know
that the level of teachers’ intellectual development has a direct relation-
ship to student behavior and student performance. Teachers who function
at higher levels intellectually produce students who function at higher
levels intellectually. Characteristic of these teachers include their ability
to empathize, to symbolize experience, and to act in accordance with a
disciplined commitment to the Habits of Mind. In the classroom they
employ a greater range of instructional strategies, elicit more conceptual
responses from students, and produce high-achieving students who are
more cooperative and involved in their work. Successful teachers are
mindful teachers, and they stimulate their students to be mindful as well.
Outside the classroom they model the kinds of skillful thinking and intel-
lectual behaviors they are teaching students in the classroom. School lead-
ers facilitate building such environments.
A leader’s role, therefore, is to constantly protect, monitor, and
enhance the continual learning and refining of the Habits of Mind so that
the habits not only are increasingly internalized by students, but also
become valued and internalized by the staff. Staff members should
increasingly
•Be aware of and recognize the Habits of Mind in themselves and
others.
•Value the Habits of Mind as an internal compass to guide actions,
thoughts, and decisions.
•Be skillful and capable in performing the Habits of Mind.
•Apply the Habits of Mind in an ever-expanding range and variety
of settings.
•Be committed to monitoring, reflecting on, evaluating, and improv-
ing use of the Habits of Mind.
•Be spontaneous and habitual in the use of the Habits of Mind.
(Chapter 4 describes this “journey” of continuous growth in the Habits of
Mind in detail.)
276 Learning and Leading with Habits of Mind